Advice needed on current spec and getting me setup with a triple display gaming rig

[SkScotchegg]

Hi there, please can you offer some assitance, I have a 3 year old PC and I've seen lots of people on here talk about eyeinfinity and show their setups with 3 monitors and I really want to have the same setup for games especially like bad company 2 etc.

I'm wondering what I'll have to do to achieve this because of my current spec I have some questions.

Current Spec:
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.3ghz
4GB Duel Channal DDR2 @333mhz (5-5-5-15)
Intel Motherboard DG45ID (doesnt allow me to overclock)
1TB HDD Sata
Sound Blaster X-FI Extreme 5.1
20" widescreen samsung monitor 1680x1050
Windows 7 64bit

With this current Spec I have been playing all of the latest games in the past week such as Crysis 2 on very high settings, 40fps, Homefront on Medium Settings, Bulletstorm on High settings, Shift 2 on High settings....all 4 games run smooth and look amazing so am very happy after 3 years that this PC still runs the latest games!

I must add though, the system is about 3 years old, but the graphics card I bought about a year ago when my old graphics card died.

I'm planning on getting 3x24" or 3x25" monitors.

Questions:

1. Can I have 3 monitors with this current spec or will that be next to impossible? I guess if I have 40fps with crysis 2 now with one monitor, then on 3 monitors I'd prob have even less fps?
   
2. Is it even possible to run 3 monitors from one graphics card, or do you need two minimum?
   
3. Also I was planning on getting crossfire or sli which is best for displaying 3 monitors?
   
4. And depending on how you answer that question which graphics cards should I get?
   
5. And do you think I need to upgrade anything else to make this work with current system? like maybe the CPU?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hybrid572]

You've done very well with that Q8200 at stock!

To game on 3 24"/25" monitors, you're going to need a lot of graphics horsepower. ATI's Eyefinity is the most popular for triple monitor, and 24/25 inches will mean a res of 1920x1080, so that means you're either going to need two 6950/6970s in Crossfire, or the monster that is a 6990. That's £400-£500 before you've looked at a new PSU (£80 or so), and a new CPU, motherboard and RAM, which you'll likely need an i5 2500K to keep up with your graphics card. This places you at £1000, plus the cost of 3 monitors, bringing the grand total up to £1500.

If you're desperate to do it on a budget, you might be able to get away with sticking an extra 5770 (and possibly PSU, depending on your current one) in, but you'll have to turn down a lot of settings.

 

[SkScotchegg]

Thanks for your reply, been waiting ages for someone to reply to me lol, yeah this cpu has done be good, I would have overclocked it but my motherboard is rubbish and doesnt support overclocking.

Well from what you've said am thinking probably the best option would be to just do all this in the process of buying a new PC because I believe also that my current motherboard only has one slot for a graphics card so I cant even put more in even if I wanted to.

Lets just say though that I did have 3x25" monitors right this second and I plugged them all in to the one HD5770 that I current have, would my system fail miserably do you think? Like would I have no chance of playing crysis 2 with 3 monitors on this spec?

Also am not sure what wattage my PSU is, is there anywhere to see in windows or would I have to open the case? it's probably 500w or 600w.

Thanks for your help so far.